That's life!

I was killick of the stokers mess on the last commission of the Aisne  in 1966. We went to Subic bay in the Philippines. In the mess was a young Junior stoker. We will call him Buster Brown (then he can deny it was him) from Birmingham. He was inexperienced in everything and knew nothing about the workings of the female sex. We were all ashore in a bar and upstairs the girls worked hard. It was explained to the 'madam' that Buster was a "cherry boy" and his first visit was "on the house". As it was quiet he had two more visits with the other girls, also on the house. For his fourth visit of the hour the girls charged him a reduced rate and after three more times they said 'enough', its now the going rate. Buster borrowed all the tea kitty money and whatever else he could, he was rampant and carried on all night!

A month later I got called to the Captains Cabin and was shown a letter received from Buster's mum who had complained that her son had been led astray. The silly beggar had only wrote home and told her all about it. I was severely warned not to allow it to happen again. I didn't dare tell the skipper Buster had worked his way through the West Indies as well.

When we returned to the UK, I took Buster back to Birmingham. As we got off the train at Birmingham New Street station who is waiting for him?

His mum!

I was off like a shot.